The Hands We Are Dealt
by amanira
Summary: A:TLA set in a modern day time-period. With the progress of time and civilization, Benders have become outnumbered, feared and hunted. After the Bender Hunts in the early 14th century, people of all four bender nations unite and go into hiding under the Fire Nation's leadership. Ozai and Ursa are tasked with keeping the peace, but blood is spilling once again. AU. Zutara.
1. Prologue

**A/N** - If you'd like a mental picture of where this scene is happening, Google for Badarbunga volcanic eruption or see this - rack. media/ZgkyMDE0LzA5LzExLzI1L0ljZWxhbmRWb2xjLjBhNTlhLmpwZwpwCXRodW1iCTE0NDB4MTAwMD4KZQlqcGc/afcf9e46/2d7/Iceland%20Volcano%20Lava%20Flow%

The characters in this story are not mine, and I make no profit out of this.

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><p><em><strong>PROLOGUE<strong>_

**PRESENT DAY: Bardarbunga, Iceland**

Zuko held the jet injector to Katara's neck and growled, "stop moving, you know what this is. There is nowhere to run anymore". He shifted her wrists to one hand and forced her to kneel down facing the barren snowfield, her back to him. He struggled to catch his breath after the weeks spent tracking her through wilderness and snow drifts, and the half-day chase before he had finally caught up with her. She had not given up without a fight. She was bleeding in a dozen places and her hair had come loose of its braid. Her face was smudged with mud and snow, and her sunken cheeks and haunted cerulean eyes bore witness to the toll his relentless pursuit of six months had taken. She looked close to death. She _**was**_ close to death. Zuko realized he was staring, realized that her hold on him was as strong as ever if not more, and that she still took his breath away. He steeled himself visibly and tightened his hold on the jet injector.

Unbidden, his father Ozai's voice rang in his head and he remembered the words that had turned his world upside down. _She has betrayed everything we stand for. Many have died because of her and more will. She must be stopped. You are our best tracker. Find her and finish her. When the time comes, and you weaken, remember that your cousin Lu Ten is dead at her hands. Remember that she killed your mother in cold blood. Remember this and do what must be done._

Katara had finally stopped struggling and resigned herself to the fact that she was going to die. She had known it was going to end this way when she made her choices six months back. When she had first reached deep down into herself and pulled out half-desperate, half-terrified courage to do what needed to be done. She thought she was ready. She had spent so much time going over this inevitable clash again and again in her mind, practicing what she would say, how she would explain. She knew she was never very good words. That was always Zuko's strength, never hers. The practiced words had fled her moment his dao blades sliced her arms and then her legs. Now, she just silently looked out at the the lava spewing from Bardarbunga about half a mile from where she knelt in the snow, taking in the beautiful violence with which fire and ice met. The sun had set on Zuko and her as they battled, and the band of lava reflected warm shades of orange on the snow and onto the steam that rose above. It looked like like it would be comforting to touch, warm to hold, safe to sink into. So deceptive. Fire was always so deceptive.

She sensed more than felt Zuko let go of her wrists and shift behind her. Her arms hung leaden, she frowned and tried to move to them but then realized the dao blades had cut too deeply into her muscles than she had thought. "It's the extensor carpi radialis longus", her mind was throwing up useless definitions and details and information from her pre-med books. The scientist in her made detached observations about too much blood loss leading to loss of concentration. Well, she never could focus around him anyway, she thought wryly - not since the first time she had met him. She closed her eyes and sighed, relaxing her shoulders. In a way she was relieved it was finally ending. She opened her eyes again with an effort, and found that he was standing in front of her, a carefully blank expression on his face and the jet injector still unerringly pointed at her jugular.

Zuko looked at Katara kneeling in the snow and remembered his father's rage and Lu Ten's lifeless eyes. For a moment, he was back in the mountains, cradling his dying mother and begging her to hold on, to stay with him. Her dying whispers washed over him again, just as they had every waking and sleeping hour for the past six months, "_Katara... you must stop her... go after her... promise me you will go after her..._". That promise had led him here, with a steady hand holding death to the throat of the woman he once thought was the love of his life. She had stilled her struggling once she felt the jet injector; he ran his eyes over her shoulders and back slumped in defeat - looking for signs of what had gone so irrevocably wrong between them. She seemed to be staring out at the lava in front of them now. He looked up at the stark beauty of snowfield around them. So white, so pure, so soft and yet so resilient where it put out the fires of the lava in a poetry of flares and steam. So deceptive. Water was always so deceptive.

He knew what needed to be done - he had always taken the road duty demanded he take. He let go of her wrists to move in front of her to deliver the death blow he had promised his mother, belatedly realizing he had left her hands free and she could bend now. He frowned when she did not - and looked down at her hands to see that they had dyed the snow around them a dull red. Something broke inside him then and he moved to end the nightmare quickly. Standing in front of her, he moved the dials on the injector to 'kill' setting and brought it closer to her neck till it touched her skin. His hands shook and fought to control them, fought to control the pounding ache in his heart. He froze when she leaned forward and into the injector, looked up at him and said, "Do it Zuko", in a small but calm voice. He looked into her eyes, committing to memory their deep and clear blue color once again. The blue had fascinated him since the first time their eyes met. He had once told her that he hadn't truly seen blue before he had looked into her eyes.

Now as those eyes looked at him, too open, too trusting, he threw his mind back forcefully to his mother's funeral and was almost relieved to find the familiar rage fill in the emptiness inside him. He started to speak the traditional death sentence, the words taking a life of their own as they escaped him - _"_Katara you have been condemned to death for the murders of Prince Lu Ten and Queen Ursa, and of thirty seven Earth Benders of the Naivasha Clan. For these unforgivable sins against your own kind, your life is forfeit". As he finished the Sentence and injected her with a lethal dose of a general anesthetic, Zuko, Heir Apparent to a forgotten race, master firebender, son to a dead mother, and beloved of the woman dying in front of him - knew without an iota of a doubt that his own life was forfeit as well. He was going to die by the side of an erupting volcano with a woman who had betrayed him because he knew that when he walked away from the blood-stained snowfield he would leave his soul behind.

"Zuko"

Softly spoken words pulled his eyes back to her again. "Zuko, do you remember what I said to you that night when we.." she stopped, hunching over and coughing before collapsing on her side in the snow.

".. that night we walked in the rain for hours. The first time we kissed and you asked me if it was right. I told you that..."

She couldn't finish the sentence as another fit of coughing overtook her and Zuko watched her cough blood into the snow. Something nagged at the back of his mind - why was this happening? Was it an allergic reaction? He had been told the chemical was painless. His attention snapped back to her when he saw she was struggling to speak again, and he instinctively knelt down, bent close and helped her up, supporting her weight against him.

"I told you... I told you that... Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field... and that I'll meet you there..."

Against his will, stinging tears filled Zuko's eyes, but he held them in - he had that much honor left. He would not cry over his mother's killer. He owed Ursa that much.

"Zuko"

She would not stop talking. Agni, why would she not stop talking? He looked away at the destructive meeting of the lava and snow, distracting and distancing himself from her.

"Zuko, I forgive you", she whispered in a hoarse and broken voice. He closed his eyes and battled the storm raging inside him; tried to recall his mother's lifeless body again but to his horror found that the image of Katara bleeding in the snow had replaced it.

"Zuko. I forgive you but you must leave me now. I will not let you watch me die."

He forced open his eyes to look down at her a question forming in his eyes, and was shocked to see that she was bleeding from her eyes and her nose. As he looked at her he saw that her hands had started twitching and it did not look voluntary. His hands tightened on her shoulders when he realized he must have injected with something that was anything but painless. He shook his head from side to side and tried to find his voice to tell her that he never wanted this for her. He had spent days brewing the right chemical that would kill painlessly - it was the very reason he had come after her himself. How had this happened? Where had he gone wrong?

A scream twisted out of Katara as she felt her body light on fire from the inside. _Not like this_ she whimpered to herself, _not like this_.

Reaching into that half-desperate, half-scared well of courage again, she found the strength to look him in the eye and say, "Leave me to die. This is my last wish. You cannot deny me this; unless you have no honor".

He thought her scream had ripped through him, but when Zuko heard her pained words asking him to leave, he realized that was what it truly felt like to be ripped into pieces. He could not deny this. She was right; he was honor-bound. He gently lay her back on the snow and force of habit had him half-tucking in a wayward strand behind her ear before he caught himself. He nodded to her once, and stood up in a smooth motion.

He looked down at her in the snow for what felt like an eternity, and then turned away and started the long walk to his helicarrier and his men. He had put at least half a mile between the dying woman and him when he heard the second scream. He turned back then and saw the glow of the lava in the distance. He clenched his jaw, determined to do his duty right this one time, and turned away from the orange glow in the sky.

He started to walk towards a world made grey in the absence of her laughter, her touch, her presence - and though his heart broke every time he heard it - he did not stop when she screamed a third time, and then a fourth, and then again and again till distance muffled her voice.

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><p><strong>AN** - My first fanfic! This is not a one-shot, I have a epic planned here with 35-40 chapters. I will be updating soon. So what's the verdict? Good, bad, ugly - shall I continue?

Also who spotted the reference to Rumi and to Kenya? High-five if you did. There's going to be lot of Rumi and Sufism in this story, and a lot of my favorite places in the world as I build it out :)

Until next time then!


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Just a quick note on the narrative timeline I'm using - the prologue chapter happens about one-third through the course of the story; the next few chapters will trace the events that lead to it, and then we pick up again to find out what happened to Zuko and Katara after the fight at Bardarbunga. So pay attention to the year and location mentioned at the top of each chapter.

Before you throw things at me - trust me that you will love the next few chapters for lots of Zutaraness, insights on how the Benders live in modern-day world, and descriptions of some of my favorite places in the world.

Finally, FF's content editor is a new and strange animal to me. I was expecting something like wordpress but this is a whole new thing - so be patient with me as I figure out formatting, responses to reviews etc.

I own nothing of course and on that note, let's jump right in.

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><p><em>There was peace in this world once, when Benders and Non-Benders lived in harmony. It was not meant to last. The world progressed, populations grew, and slowly but inevitably the Non-Benders began to outnumber us. They began to wonder at our abilities; what was once common-place was now rare. Wonder turned to envy, and envy turned to fear. Fear feeds fear, and the Benders began to consolidate power and restrict interactions with Non-Benders. Fear and inequity - the twin building blocks of revolution. The first killings started amongst the Earth and Fire Nations, and spread to the Air Temples and Water Tribes. Brother against brother. The world descended into chaos. Which Avatar before me had faced something like this? What could I do to bring balance? The only choice I had, the impossible choice I had - was to lead them into hiding.<em>

_- A History of Bender Hunts, Avatar Roku_

**CHAPTER 1**

**TWO YEARS BACK: ****Spring 2012, Entebbe, Uganda**

Katara lay back in the late evening spring sunshine and let the cool breeze off of Lake Victoria wash over her. _This is probably the last relaxed weekend of the year for me_, she mused as she ran her hands over the soft grass and moved around to find the perfect position on the low-rise lounger facing the lake.

"Katara, how's that press release coming along? I need to get it back to the PR firm in time for a Monday roll-out"

Her mother's voice jolted her out of any ideas of all-rest and no-work. _Trust mom to make us productive even when we are officially on vacation_. Katara sighed and opened up her Mac again. She stood up, stretched and turned the lounger away from the Lake and towards the cottage to minimize distractions. She took a moment to look at the white cottage with blue windows and smile - it had always been her happy place since her parents first built it as a vacation home for the family. It was perfectly located - on the shores of the world's biggest freshwater lakes but close enough to the Entebbe airport so that Kenya, where her parents lived for the better part of the year, was only a few hours away. _Focus now Katara_, she thought as she pulled up the report her mother wanted her to finish.

The Macbook sang itself to life, and she quickly located the word document - "_LT Sing Se press release-Kya_edits-V2_". She had written up a draft version for her mother to review last night and now as she opened up the documents and read through the amount of re-work expected of her, she groaned internally. Her mother really was a slave-driver. However, Katara was anything but unappreciative of the life her parents had built for Sokka and her, and took her role as newly appointed Director of LT Corp. seriously enough to begin editing the annual report with the determination to get it right this time.

_LT Corporation was established in 1995 as a supplier of mining equipment and contracted-labour to Sing Se Industries. Over the past decades, LT and Sing have grown their partnership to several strategic alliances for mineral exploration, mining and logistics across Eastern and Southern Africa. Their collaboration extends beyond business to several philantrhopic ventures the firms have co-funded. Today, the two firms are proud to announce a joint investment in a series of charitable hospitals and clinics being built across Uganda and Kenya focussed on serving the poor._

Katara re-read the paragraph she had typed up, and once again felt grateful for the support that the Earthbenders' Clan had extended to her parents when Hakoda and Kya first traveled to East Africa in the early 90s, looking for a place to call home. Tyro, Managing Director and CEO of Sing Se Industries, had given her parents their first business contract - even paying them in advance so they could procure the equipment. Hakoda's hardwork and Kya's astute business sense had brought LT Corp, named after the Water Spirits La and Tui, to a pre-eminent position among East African business houses.

Katara, having found her momentum with the first paragraph, edited the rest of the press release quickly and emailed it back to her mother. She shut the laptop down just in time to hear her brother Sokka and their friend Haru call out from the lake -

"Oi Katara, get over here. We need your skills for this one."

She rolled her eyes and yelled right back, "ask me nicely". She was Sokka's baby sister, but she had just turned eighteen, and if she was adult enough to be part of the LT Corp. Board, then she was adult enough to demand respect from her stupid brother and his jar-head friends.

"Katara, we're sorry. Could you please come by here for a minute. We could use your help."

Haru's deeper and decidedly more polite voice called-out. She blushed and immediately took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She had developed an annoying crush on Haru over the past fortnight she'd been home. _So cliched Katara_, she scolded herself, _falling for the brother's friend_. _Is this really what you should be thinking about right now? 3 days away from finally starting pre-med at Stanford?_ That sobered her up real quick - her conscience was a prodigy at pushing all the right buttons to get Katara moving on the straight and narrow path. _Boring and dull_, another voice in her head chirped up and was quickly sushed.

She put the laptop down and called out to her mother, "Mom, it's done and I've emailed it. I'm going down to the lake to chill with Sokka and Haru for a bit."

She started to walk towards the lake, looking around and soaking in all the sights and smells that she would not see for another year. Her hands brushed along the barks of the Jacaranda trees in full-bloom and she threw her head back to look up at the purple flowers offset by a golden azure sky. She really was going to miss this place. _Maybe I can bring back some friends for the mid-term break._ The thought of it got her thinking about Stanford again, which impressively enough for a brick-and-mortar building always got her heart racing like no boy had ever managed. She was starting an undergraduate degree in Human Biology soon, and had signed up for the Stanford Immersion in Medicine Series, which meant she was going to be shadowing real doctors for a whole year.

Lost in her inner ramblings, she barely noticed when she walked through the wooded area in front of their cottage and arrived at the shores of the lake. She spotted Sokka and Haru right away - sitting at the end of the pier, their legs in the water and fishing rods out just like they had been all through spring. A few nimble steps had her on the pier and she began walking down it; her deep blue summer dress blowing in the wind along with her dark brown hair. _Excellent, its going to be a hornet's nest once again_, she thought, trying to hold her hair together with both her hands.

"Alright. I'm here, what is it?"

"Katara, Haru has a big fish but the fishing rod's too thin to reel it in - you have to bend it out of the water" commanded Sokka, with all the finesse of a boy who had spent twenty summers ordering his baby sister around and expected to spend twenty more in exactly the same fashion.

Haru, though, was the brains of their little fishing expedition and noticed how quickly Katara's eyes had narrowed. "What Sokka actually means is that Katara, this is the biggest fish we've snagged this vacation and we.. I.. would be eternally grateful if you could bend it out.. please Katara." He said this while struggling to hold on to a fishing rod that was moving as though it had a life of its own.

The voice, Haru's green eyes and his obvious struggle with the unruly fish had Katara's expression softening, not that Sokka had brains enough to see it, and she replied in a calmer voice, "Haru, its not that I don't want to - but you know how strict mom and dad are about the covenant against bending in public. They'll go nuclear if they realize I've been bending in broad daylight. Your dad is just as strict isn't he?"

Sokka looked like he was going to protest there for a minute, but a muffled yelp that was the result of a swift underwater kick to the shins from Haru shut him up. "Katara please. Do this one last thing for us... you're leaving tomorrow morning", Haru pleaded.

"Fine, keep a look-out. Haru hold onto the fishing rod and keep an eye out for people, Sokka go back and keep an eye out for mom."

For once, Sokka didn't complain and scrambled to do her bidding. Katara closed her eyes, focused on the chi pathways inside her just like Kya had taught her and took a few deep breaths. She moved her right foot forward in a sinuous motion, opening her palms and moving them so they faced the water as she searched her element for the currents around Haru's fish. The jerking movements of the fish made them easy to sense, and Katara quickly brought her hands around, almost tracing a figure-of-eight in the air with cupped palms. Almost as if it were a symphony being conducted by the master bender, the water around Haru's fishing rod began to churn and a ball of water began to rise out of the lake - with the fish in question right in the middle of it.

"KATARA! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?"

Kya's voice thundered across the lake, and Katara immediately let go of the water which splashed all over Haru, who for good measure was also smacked in the face by the fish before it made a quick escape.

"I WANT YOU IN THE HOUSE. RIGHT NOW. ALL OF YOU."

Trembling at the thought of Kya's legendary temper, Haru looked for a minute as though he pondered the wisdom of jumping into the lake and swimming to his own family's vacation home a mile further down the beach. Without even turning around, Kya yelled again, "Haru I will hunt you down if you do not follow me right now and it will not be pretty when I find you".

Resigned to what was going to be a painful end to an otherwise memorable trip, Sokka, Katara and Haru followed Kya back to the cottage.

"I thought you were keeping watch", whispered Katara furiously to her brother.

"I was, but I had to see the fish come out didn't I?", he whispered back.

_Tui and La, he has a vacuum for a brain_. _How can he be our parents' son? Maybe he got switched at the hospital? _Katara fumed.

Kya's thirty minute lecture on the Covenant turned out to be everything the three wrong-doers had expected. Tyro had been summoned, and in no time at all, appeared to collect his son while apologizing profusely to Kya for Haru's part in the mischief. Sokka and Katara were grounded for the rest of day - the rest of the trip in fact - because everyone was headed back the next day. Sokka's "you cannot ground me, I am 21" had resulted in Kya saying "watch me" and asking the siblings to fix their own dinner because she was ready to wash her hands off them.

"Well done brother", remarked Katara, watching their mother storm up the stairs to her room.

Sokka looked crushed at the prospect of no dinner, "But... but... she's our mother, she cannot not feed us" he mumbled.

"She can do whatever she wants. I'm fixing a PB&J - do you want one?", asked Katara, feeling sorry for the way her brother looked heartbroken at the prospect of no food. Sokka was in a passionate relationship with food, had been all his life. She knew this because he looked at his girlfriend Suki the exact same way he looked at chicken stew and rice - like it was the best thing that had ever happened to him.

"Yes OK, I guess that will do", he mumbled again moving closer to the table and plonking himself on a stool with the sigh of a martyr.

Katara's hands itched to smack him on the head, but she knew she wasn't going to see him for another year, and was suddenly overcome by a wave of affection for the idiot instead. She ruffled his hair and said, "I think there's some of the barbecue chicken leftover from lunch; I'll fix us sandwiches instead".

Sokka lit up like a Christmas tree and came around to hug her in gratitude, "You're the world's best sister - you really are!".

Thirty minutes later, the kitchen was a mess but two loaded plates of chicken sandwiches were ready, and they decided to eat outside on the porch outside to make the most of their last night in Entebbe.

"Sis, are you nervous about going away from home?", asked Sokka, chewing through his third sandwich in almost as many minutes.

Katara's immediate response was no, because hadn't she spent most of her school years at Cathedral in Oxford? She paused though, as she realized that funnily enough she _**was**_ anxious. "Its not so much being away from home you know - its more about how this time the change feels more permanent. I'll start with pre-med and then move on to several years of med-school. I feel like I am leaving home for good and its scary. I.. we've.. grown up so fast Sokka.. I don't think I'm ready to be an adult just yet."

She sighed and pushed her plate away, leaned forward on the simple wooden table they were eating at and cupped her chin in both her hands. She looked out at the lake, which while always beautiful seemed even more breath-taking today, with countless stars and a full moon reflected in the endless expanse of water. A light breeze blew through the backyard, carrying hints of rose and jasmine from Hakoda's garden patch. The water in the distance looked full in some strange way, like it was just about to spill-over the banks.

"Katara, you know home is not a place right - home is wherever your heart knows happiness, and the idea of healing people has always brought you more happiness than anything else", Sokka's gentle voice shocked her for a minute - who knew her brother was capable of such depths!

Maybe she could go a step further and tell him exactly what was on her mind - just like she had since she was three and she first confided her crippling fear of Kya and Hakoda dying and leaving them alone. Then, as now, beyond all the jesting and the annoyance, her brother was the best sounding board for her - honest, one hundred percent on her side, and possessing the right mix of idealism and pragmatism. _I'm starting to sound like fan-girl Suki now_, she mentally smirked at herself.

"Its not just that Sokka... I'm nervous about the Bender Coming of Age training... I have to make time for it along with pre-med and with MCATs coming up. And to be honest, I'm just not that kicked about meeting Water Tribe folks and listening to all that judgemental rubbish about knowing my place as a woman waterbender. What makes it worse is that it is all coordinated by those insufferable firebenders - so ridiculously close-minded and confident in their superiority over everyone, especially non-benders."

Sokka stiffened at that, it had taken him years to get over the fact that he was not born a Bender and he knew that half of Katara's angst against all benders came from this difference between them that she hated.

"I don't want to be around those firebenders Sokka. They're stuck in some ancient time in their heads where they rule the world and everyone is subject to their whims. The world changed hundreds of years back but they have not moved on. Every time they come to meet mum and dad, I feel like they are looking down on us and our way of life, and who are they to judge? That fool Ozai.."

"Katara!"

Her brother's voice cut her short and he caught her hand, squeezing togther her knuckles to emphazie. Sokka spoke in a low whisper, "You know it is dangerous to speak against King Ozai and Queen Ursa. You never know who is listening".

"I know", she said with a huff, the anger leaving her and bringing in its place longing. Longing for a normal life where she could not move water, where her parents were not forced to leave their home in Ushuaia to save her from her own tribe, and where there was no difference at all between her and another eighteen year old on the verge of starting college.

"Katara give the Bender Coming of Age training a chance, give meeting new benders a chance. Maybe there are others who feel like you, who you will be able to relate to. I know Haru loved every minute of his training". Sokka tried to keep the envy out of his voice, he really did - but just a sliver slipped through and just a sliver was more than enough for his sister. Katara slid across the bench they were sitting at to be closer to him and leaned her head on him.

"I think we're going to be OK big brother. We have each other."

Kya watched them from the kitchen window with a glass of water in her hand, and felt her heart physically clench with the love she felt for them. Later in the night, restless and unable to sleep, she called Hakoda to share her fears and hopes for her children. "xin i de*", he said, his voice made hoarse by sleep but still an anchor in her life. "We have to let them go. It is the second most important thing we can do as parents, after bringing them into this world. Remember the House of Tomorrow? We cannot go there Kya. We can live our own lives instead - that is the best we can do for Katara and Sokka now. Show them that we do not need them so they can fly without the shackles of guilt."

Kya hung up several minutes later, comforted and already impatient to be back in Kenya with Hakoda. As her eyes started to close, she noticed moonlight falling over a faded frame opposite the window which had the writing that summed up Hakoda and her philosophy of parenting.

_Your children are not your children._  
><em>They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.<em>  
><em>They come through you but not from you,<em>  
><em>And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.<em>

_You may give them your love but not your thoughts, _  
><em>For they have their own thoughts.<em>  
><em>You may house their bodies but not their souls,<em>  
><em>For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, <em>  
><em>which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.<em>  
><em>You may strive to be like them, <em>  
><em>but seek not to make them like you.<em>  
><em>For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.<em>

(*Beloved in Chinese. Verses by Khalil Gibran.)

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Sunday morning dawned bright and early, and Kya had the family and all their bags downstairs in the kitchen waiting for the company car that Tyro had promised to send over. When the bell rang, she opened the door to a contrite Haru who stood on the doorstep with a single water lily and handed it over with an apology charming enough to have her forgive him in minutes.

Relieved Haru moved over to the bags and began to move them out, but not before Kya caught the way his eyes brightened up when they landed on Katara.

_Hmmmm. This is interesting_... Kya snapped out of a Katara-Haru wedding day-dream with a smile. _Look at me, I'm pushing 4 decades but my thoughts place me at just about 14. It is a good thing that there are no known mind benders._

"Katara, let's go", she called, one hand held out to her daughter who was half asleep at the table. Katara got up and started to walk towards the door, but not before she first snaged her white shorts in a chair and then her blue t-shirt in the door knob. "I hate mornings. Why can't we have these damned flights leave at a decent hour", she grumbled to her mother, who smiled behind her and then turned out to sweep her eyes one last time over the family vacation home before locking it up for good.

The cold morning air braced Katara a bit, and she started to show signs of waking up. Haru and Sokka were waiting by the SUV, and Haru stared at Katara for a long minute - taking in her white shorts and plain blue top - normal clothes really, but he got the sense that somehow his friend's baby sister had morphed into a runway model when he wasn't paying attention, and that she'd look just as good in a shapeless sack. The rising sun glinted off of the blue and silver necklace she always wore around her neck, and painted strands of her hair golden. _She's exquisite_, he thought.

Kya's obvious clearing of her throat had him snapping out of it and backing them out of the driveway in no time at all; just a hint of a blush on his tan cheeks proving that he knew that she knew. _Next vacation, I am going to dump the brother and spend all my time with her_, he promised himself.

The Entebbe airport was really just a fifteen minute drive from the cottage, and the BMW X5 ate up the miles much too quickly to Haru's liking - who kept catching glimpses of Katara in the rear-view mirror and noticing things that had somehow completely escaped his attention. The way her caramel brown skin shone in the sunlight, the way her blue eyes shone when sunbeams darted into her face. _I really am an idiot._

In no time at all, they cleared security checks and headed over to their respective pre-boarding gates - Katara towards her flight to Dubai and then onward to San Francisco, and Sokka and Kya towards their flight back home to Nairobi.

Katara hugged Kya and Sokka for several minutes, promising to Skype everyday and asking them to look after Hakoda. By the time all the goodbyes were said, everyone seemed close to a break-down but the mechanical process of yet another security check - _Ma'm please take your shoes off as well_ - really didn't make for a very emotional setting. Overcome with another wave of drowsiness, Katara made her way over to 18A in the Economy section, wrapped the in-flight blanket as well as two of her own around herself and settled in for a five hour nap.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you for flying Kenya Airways. We have started our descent into Dubai. The seat belt sign has been turned on. Please straighten your chairs, stow away your tray tables and open your window blinds. Members of the crew will be coming around shortly to collect the blankets."

The incessant announcements in three different languages, all of which she spoke fluently, jerked Katara out of a restless sleep. Her neck and shoulders were cramped, and knees felt like they might fall off anytime. She hated long economy flights, but every time Hakoda insisted she fly business class, she protested and refused. It wasn't that they didn't have the money - it was more that she felt guilty for being eighteen and still living off of her parents' hard-earned money. What made it worse was that with her chosen career path, she was going to turn into a right little money guzzler for the next five to six years. "We earn it for both of you Katara. You have to stop being so hard on yourself". Hakoka's voice echoed in her head, and she dismissed it, because she knew her father and just below the irritation in his voice, she always felt the massive pride he took in her choices.

_One feet in front of her other now Katara_, she schooled herself, as she walked through the aerobridge to find her assigned gate and catch the connecting Emirates flight to San Francisco. She grumbled again at Sokka's monumental levels of ineptitude which had him booking her Entebbe-Dubai flight on a completely different airline. At least the staff at Emirates had been kind enough to offer to pick up and move her luggage to the right flight. She stood in the check-in line now to pick up her boarding pass.

"Miss Katara, good morning, I see here that you have been upgraded to First Class", the agent with a polite Middle-Eastern accent smiled at her, handing over her boarding pass.

"Are you sure? I didn't book..." Katara trailed off, wondering if the Holy Grail of long haul flights, an unexpected upgrade, had finally happened to her.

"Yes, I am sure. We have a request from the Sing Se Industries account here, along with a request to double check that your bags are moved from KQ 246 to our flight Emirates 225. It is taken care of, don't worry. Please head over to Gate 9, we should be commencing boarding soon."

Katara thanked the agent and picked up her boarding pass, trying to work up righteous anger against the unnecessary waste that Sokka or her mom must have planned behind her back and then realized that for once her aching muscles were glad of the waste. She walked a few steps away from the counter and fished out her cell phone to thank them, and realized she had a message from an unknown number.

_Katara, it's ok to pamper yourself once in a while - don't stand there making faces when you read this. It was great to see you.. enjoy pre-med school and I can't wait to spend time together again. Video chat once you settle in? Take care. Hugs, Haru._

She smiled and blushed, remembering again how attractive Haru was growing up to be. _I can't wait to see you again either_, she thought. She realized then that she was still close to the counter and some distance away from her gate when she the agent say, "Thank you Mr. Zuko. This is your boarding pass. Have a good flight."

_Zuko. what an usual name. I wonder if he is a Ben..._

"Excuse me", a deep voice spoke over her right shoulder and she immediately had to categorize it as the most attractive voice she had ever heard. _It even outdoes Haru - I wonder who it is? _Katara started to turn around to see when a sudden influx of a loud and rowdy bunch of school children descended on the agent and jostled her outwards. By the time she had recovered, the bearer of the voice was lost and Katara's natural morning irritation had multiplied twenty-fold by the chattering of annoying pre-teens. She turned away and started to walk towards Gate 9.

Katara sleep-walked her away to the First Class cabin, mumbled **_2-G_** to the impossibly cheerful looking crew member -_ who looks this happy so early in the morning anyway_ - and settled into a deep slumber that she hoped would last at least half the long trip ahead of her.

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Zuko was exhausted from his vacation.

_That's what happens when Lu Ten and Ty Lee get together to plan Spring Break in the Gold Coast. Mayhem._

He rubbed his eyes and looked up again at the never-ending Emirates queue to see that at last, he was almost at the check-in counter. There was just one more girl ahead of him in line, and by the looks of the way she was dragging her wheelie, she too was another victim of early morning flights converging in Dubai. He looked at her wheelie and started to space out, but was dragged back to awareness again as his eyes ran over tanned and sculpted legs in white shorts.

_Wow. That's not bad at all..._

The 15 year old inside him had barely started before the adult 18 year old took over with, _Zuko you are a prince of the High House of Azulon and Heir Apparent to the Benders of this world. It is beneath you to stare at legs of innocent and unaware women in public queues_. He straightened immediately and looked away towards the endless series of pre-boarding areas to the right.

"Next", the agent's voice had him re-focusing again and collecting his boarding pass. For the nth time that day, he cursed Agni's wrath upon Ty Lee for thinking it hilarious to book him on two completely different flights. Hopefully she was going to hold good on her promise to make sure his bags were waiting for him when he landed.

He made his way towards his assigned gate, walking through security checks and into the aircraft early by virtue of his First Class seat, and settled himself in for the 16 hour flight to San Francisco. _Well, **3-D**, you are home for now_, he thought, patting the arm rest and accepting a glass of water from a crew member. He was seated right in the center of the First Class section, with two rows of seats ahead of him and one behind - his preferred location really given his secret fear of flying and embarrassingly low levels of tolerance for turbulence.

As the safety demonstration finished, and he noticed the ever hovering crew disappear to belt themselves in for take-off, he smiled in relief that the seat next to him was going to be empty after all.

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><p><strong>AN:** Next chapter to be posted soon - hopefully tomorrow. I have it typed out but just don't have the energy to edit it anymore and trust me when I say you will enjoy the edited version better.

Fun fact - today I had these 3 things on my critical to-do list - 1) Take a GRE prep test, 2) Get a headstart on an excel model I need to build by end of day tomorrow, and 3) Get a headstart on the two client proposals I need to finish tomorrow.

Instead, I outlined this chapter in the morning, took a long and leisurely brunch with the boyfriend, and then spend all evening and most of the night typing this chapter. Clearly I'm not meant for a career in management consulting eh? If I get my MVP right with this story (see my bio for more on this) - I get to spend ALL of my time writing, not hours stolen away from another career. So please, review and let me know what's going on in your head as you read this?

**FineKindaGent** asked me where I'm going with this story. Well, the thing about Zutara that got me thinking is that K meets Z when all of the dark stuff in his life has already happened and he's been partially fixed-up by the good uncle Iroh. What if it didn't? What if darkness hit Zuko when he was bright and normal and happy - how would things be different? This story dear readers, is the answer to that question.

**Welcome new followers**! You have no idea how happy each follow alert makes me!


	3. Chapter 2

**A/N:** The title of this story has been changed. I've been building out the story outline further and realized this new title suits it better.

I own nothing, except the sleepless nights that come from obsessing over this story.

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><p><em>Our days have been dark since we have gone into hiding. Not even Agni's chariot, the sun, can cut through the shadows that have fallen upon my people. We cannot bend freely anymore. They are watching. They are hunting. I am burdened by the weight of ages past and ages to come when I think of how many generations it will take for them to forget.<em>

_But there is hope in these dark times as well. I watch the growing comradership between children of earth, fire, air and water clans; I see the growing friendship and trust. Maybe it will last. Maybe their mothers and fathers and teachers will cease to fill them with hatred and suspision against that which is different. When I hear the sound of children laughing, even in these dark times, there is hope in my heart, and the burden of being the Avatar is momentarily lightened._

A History of the Bender Hunts - Avatar Roku 

**CHAPTER 2**

**Spring 2012, 39000 feet above the Red Sea**

Hunger woke Katara up sometime later, and she looked around dazed for a few minutes as her mind found its bearings. She wondered at the strangely absent aches and pains in her joints, and remembered Haru's gesture and smiled again. _I could get used to this_.

She switched on the in-flight entertainment system in front of her and realized with disappointment that she had only been out for a couple of hours. The cabin lights brightened up on cue and she heard the crew moving around serving lunch. As she waited for lunch, she looked around the first class cabin. Seated to her left, she observed a middle-aged man with beady eyes and oily strands of hair combed across a balding head. As webs of sleep cleared from her mind, she noticed him staring. To be specific, staring at her legs. The blanket must have slipped off at some point. She felt anger and indignation rise inside her and just as she breathed in to unleash a tirade and ask him _just what the hell do you think you are looking at_; his slimy eyes swept off of her legs and onto the window across her right. She stopped then, wondering if she had misunderstood the situation in her sleep-haze, and chose to snuggle back into the blanket instead.

And of course, as usual, she had the in-flight blanket as well as her own two pashmina shawls wrapped around her again; barely sufficient to ward off the cold. Katara was always a little cold - a fact that surprised Hakoda and Kya no end given her South Pole heritage and waterbending genes. When she was younger, her shivering bouts routinely had Kya take her to their family doctor at odd hours - until everyone realized the only solution to the problem was to have Katara dress in layers of warm clothes each time the temperature dipped under 26 degrees celcius.

Katara smiled, remembering how much her aversion to cold irritated Sokka when they drove in the same car. He was always turning the air-conditioning down while she was turning it off. Until Hakoda settled the Sibling Cold War as Kya had taken to calling it, by buying Katara her own Ford sedan on her 17th birthday.

She was pulled out of her reminiscing once lunch was served. With some second-guessing of choices, she finally opted for the herb grilled chicken and vegetables, and settled down to see if she could find a good movie to watch while eating. As she fumbled with the headphone, trying to find the socket to plug them in, she barely heard the man seated next to her order for a "large scotch on the rocks".

She drifted off to oblivion about half-way through the movie, and was jerked away by sudden gun-fire. She blinked bleary eyes at the screen - there seemed to be a battle of epic proportions going on, but clearly she had missed too much of it to follow along anymore. She pulled off the headphones and bent forwards towards her storage pocket to stow it away. She felt a pricking at the back of her neck and turned to the left, just in time to catch the bald man staring at her again.

"You are verrry pretty. Whaaat is your name?" he slurred, and Katara felt anger rise again as she realized that his obscene eyes were moving over her blanket covered body again.

Behind them, in seat 3-D, Zuko smirked - he had expected drunk shenanigans to go down any second now with the number of _scotch on the rocks_ the man in front of him had downed. He felt a bit sorry for the woman seated with the guy, but figured this was first class - what could go wrong?

A few meters away, Katara was starting to tremble with rage at how shamelessly creepy-bald-guy, as she had mentally labelled him, was trying to flirt with her. Her urge to waterbend him into the ceiling was increasing by the minute, when he suddenly grabbed her hand and asked, "honey, have you heard of the mile-high club?" and wriggled his hairy eyebrows suggestively. There was a moment of stunned silence before Katara pushed him, and yelled "how dare you?". Her hands were itching to water-whip him and wipe that sleazy smile off of his face. She spoke in an icy voice, "Have you looked at yourself? What makes you think any girl would be interested in speaking with you? You are invading my privacy and personal space, and I do not appreciate it. You need to stop talking to me and looking at me right away. I am going to go and find another seat."

A couple of minutes back, Zuko had been ready to stand up and offer to help the lady out. Mile-high club? Worst pick-up line of the century. Now though, he was stunned at no-nonsense manner in which she had managed to cut the man down to size, especially given how young she sounded. He relaxed - thinking the woman was more than capable of handling this on her own. He looked around then, wondering if anyone else was noticing what was going on but realized that other passengers were either asleep, knocked out by rigors of the early morning flight, or were deeply involved in watching something on their entertainment systems.

Finished with giving a piece of her mind to the creepy-bald-man, Katara stood up and walked out of the first class cabin - keen to find a crew member and request for a change in seats, even if it meant she had to go back to economy. She walked into the crew galley just as one of the crew members was leaving with a full tray of water. A young, pleasant-looking man, he said, "Hi there, be with you in a minute" and smiled at her before shutting the galley curtains and walking out.

Katara folded her arms and leaned back into the wall, determined to wait it out and find another seat. A shuffling behind her caught her attention, and she turned around and to her shock noticed the creepy-bald-man, advancing towards her threateningly. For a moment, she wondered if she should scream but hesitated because _did such things actually happen on a full flight for cryin' out 'loud'_, and in that moment - he moved forward and knocked her back against the wall - caught both her wrists in one hand and pushed them to a side, and pressed another hand on her mouth and nose. A few plastic glasses fell off the serving shelf as Katara's back impacted the wall, but any sound that might have resulted was drowned by the thick red carper covering the floor.

Everything had happened too fast for Katara to react. One moment she had been relaxing, thinking of what she would say to the crew member when he returned, and wondering if there were any spare seats in first class that could move to, and in the next she had been roughly backed up against her wall. The few seconds was all it had taken for her subconscious to get into fight or flight mode, and adrenalin pumped through her veins now. Sokka's many lessons on self-defense flooded her mind, and she tried with all her strength to free her hands and push the drunk man back. She strained her shoulders, leaning her weight forward to gain additional force but his bulk just seemed unmovable. Irrational terror began to build within her as she realized that several minutes had passed but no one seemed to have walked into the galley yet.

_Where in La's name did that crew member disappear to? Should I try to bend? But the covenant!_. Thoughts raced through her mind one after another.

_Katara, you are only focused on mastering one skill and this will be your downfall. You must train to build strength. You must learn the use of other weapons. What if you cannot bend?_, Sokka's voice filled her head and she knew a moment of deep gratitude for her brother for drilling self-defense moves into her all her life.

She knew what to do, but needed to be able to move her arms, her legs - something to initiate an attack. She took a deep breath and ceased struggling to gain some wriggle room, and this seemed to throw the creepy-bald-man for a moment. Then his eyes darkened, perhaps thinking she was no longer putting up a fight. He leaned further into her, and whisky-laden stale breath washed over her face as he whispered, "you and me are going to have some fun now pretty-face".

Less than fifty meters away, separated from the on-going silent scuffle only by a thick red curtain, Zuko frowned in worry. He had watched the drunk man follow the girl in the semi-darkness of the first class cabin and thought, _This can't be good - should I follow?_. All the Bender convenants such as keeping a low profile and not attracting attention quickly flashed through his mind. As sat there, still undecided, his keen hearing picked up the faint sound of something impacting a wall. _To hell with the covenants_, he thought standing up and quickly walking out of the cabin, and much to his horror he found that the drunk guy was pressing the girl into a galley wall, and the girl suddenly seemed to deflate, almost as though she were giving up.

Zuko saw red. He had reached out a hand to grab onto the man's neck and pull him off the girl when he noticed her stiffen up again. He paused, hesitating and over the next fifteen seconds realized that his intervention was not really needed after all.

Moving with the ease of years of practice, Katara shifted one foot into the drunk man's in-step and caused him to back away a few inches in his pain. She quickly moved in the extra space created, flinging her hands outwards and pushed her palms into her attackers chest with no small amount of force. He doubled up in pain and staggered back a couple of steps, and Katara used the opportunity to pivot away from the wall and behind the drunk man, where she dealt out two quick kicks to the back of his knees.

He collapsed, and she spun fluidly to her right, preparing to kick him unconscious, when someone's hand landed on her shoulder and a deep voice spoke - "I think you've already knocked him out."

Adrenalin was still driving her, as was the terror she had felt at being cornered like an animal, and the touch on her shoulder set her off again. She whipped around, determined to also beat into unconsciousness whoever had touched her.

"Miss, what is going on here? Are you ok?", the crew member's panicked voice snapped her out of it, and she felt the violence drain out of her in a rush. For a fleeting moment, she leaned into the arms that were holding her - _when had they come up around her?_ - and then straightened her back and said, "he attacked me".

Zuko had watched the girl beat the man unconscious in a quarter of a minute, with a kind of lethal grace he had never seen anyone achieve - not even his father's Dai Li assasins. _Who was she?_ Her shoulder trembled under the arm he had reached out to stop her from potentially killing the creature who had attacked her. For a moment, it seemed like she was close to collapsing, and he quickly put both his hands on her forearms to steady her. She leaned into him and blankly looked into the distance. Seconds passed, but time seemed to stretch and extend, affording Zuko the opportunity to really look at her for the first time. He took in her curly brown hair, delicate features, and deep blue eyes. He felt his breath catch a little at how beautiful she was, but her spaced-out expression pulled him out of his scrutiny and he looked her over for any signs of injury. He noticed her wrists were already bruising, and another wave of anger rose inside him at the man lying unconcious on the floor. He sensed the girl stir and realized he was still holding her. "He attacked me?", she repeated again in an almost questioning, low and trembling voice. Against all propriety and reason, Zuko's immediate instinct was to hold her closer - but he dropped his hands and backed away - telling himself that the last thing she needed now was another strange man invading her personal space.

For the next forty minutes, Katara explained what had happened to several members of the crew and finally to an officer of the San Francisco Police Department who was also co-incidentally on the same flight. Mid-way through these proceedings, the creepy-bald-guy gained consciousness and groaned on the floor. The crew and the cop collectively concluded that it would be best to restrain him in a secluded area of the flight and handcuffed to a seat in the economy section - with several rows emptied of passengers in front of and behind him to create a mini-holding area. Katara heard, felt and understood everything that was happening, but it was almost as if she were seeing things through a translucent gauze. Jarring pieces of information haphazardly seeping through her mind. Halfway through the conversations she realized that the guy who first found her had still hung around. She felt a brief stir of gratitude towards him for stopping her before she managed to cause serious injury to the drunk man. She looked at him again now - he was standing some distance away from the SFPD officer, and found that she was also grateful he had stayed. _I must remember to thank him later_, she thought, running a weary hand across her forehead.

The cop and the crew team leader had turned to her now, and she had to consciously focus on them to hear what they were saying, and even then her attention drifted, and she only caught a phrase here and a phrase there.

".. are sorry that this happened on our flight Ms Katara... has been restrained... crew changed your seating... follow me"

Nothing was making sense to Katara anymore, she felt tired and disconnected and wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. She tried to form words to explain that she needed a minute, and once again felt like the air was cotton and it was was difficult to breathe. She looked up then and saw that the guy who had followed her was looking at her with a worried frown on his face. He was walking towards her now, and Katara's logical mind knew that it must have been at normal speed, but for some reason, it seemed to her like each step he took spanned several long minutes.

Zuko looked at the girl struggle to speak, and clear her head of the daze that his uncle Iroh called the post-battle-red. _Katara_. That's what the crew member had called her. He walked up to her, and tried to make his voice sound as gentle and non-threatening as possible and said, "Katara, my name is Zuko. You are going to be alright - you just need to lie down for a bit. The seat next to mine is empty, you can sit with me if it makes you feel better."

Her eyes had widened with a hint of fear when Zuko asked her to sit with him, and he stifled a curse at his own insensitivity. _Maybe one of the crew members could sit with her instead? Maybe she wanted to sit by herself? Why did he always speak before thinking?_.

"Yes please, thank you. I need.. I need my blankets...I'm cold." Katara walked out of the galley and back into the first class cabin. Zuko and the crew were caught unawares for a few seconds, and then they too turned to follow her. She stopped mid-way through the cabin and looked back towards him with a half-formed question in her eyes.

"Here, it's this one", Zuko pointed, moving his backpack and some books out of the spare seat for Katara to settle down in. Remembering her blankets, he walked to her old seat and picked up three before getting back to her and handing them over. Katara draped herself and fell asleep almost immediately, and with another couple of minutes of fussing around, the crew left as well.

Zuko sat down with a sigh as well. _Craziest flight I've ever been on. I wonder who she is?_ The question had him looking at her again, and even though she had fallen asleep with her back to him, he noticed that she was still shivering, despite her three blankets. He then did something his own father would have most certainly ex-communicated him for. Something that he personally would not have condoned in anyone else. He laid a soft hand on her back, focused his breathing on his chi pathways and channeled his firebender energy to warm her. She stopped shivering in a few minutes, and from the change in the way her back moved with her breathing, Zuko soon had the satisfaction of knowing that she had fallen into a deep slumber.

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_Katara was dreaming of a summer day in the Masai Mara grasslands. Warm sunshine flooded an open-top 4X4, and the vast open savannah stretched for miles in front of her, ending in a distant horizon lined with Acacia trees. Sokka was driving, and the scent of sun dried grass, what she would always think of as the scent of home, was rife in the air. She felt herself relax and folded up her feet to tuck them under sweatshirt._

_Suddenly, the sky became overcast and a cold wind started to whip through the dirt track, bring dust and leaves in its wake. She turned to ask Sokka to find shelter and fear uncoiled in her stomach as she realized there was no one in the driving seat. The Range Rover continued to speed, careening off the dirt track and into a steep valley. "Sokka", she called out softly and with an effort - feeling like something was dragging her back, keeping her from calling out. She watched the vehicle speed down the valley, certain that as sturdy as her father's car was, it could not possibly stay upright forever. Her arms were lead. She couldn't move. She was going to die. The right wheel caught a rock and the vehicle balanced on 2 wheels for half a second before the entire vehicle flipped over. The ground rushed up to meet her and she crossed her hands in front of her face. Terror gave her the voice that had somehow been missing all this time. "Sokka"_

Two warm hands covering her own snapped her out of her nightmare. _Sokka_. She felt her half-uttered scream hoarse in her throat and was embarrasingly sure she had spoken out loud. She breathed in, trying to calm her racing heart and collect her thoughts.

"It's alright. It's just a dream", the guy sitting next to her said, his amber eyes twin pools of concern. She dropped her eyes down to his hands which were still holding her own. He seemed to notice the fact just at the same time as she did and withdrew them. For a moment, Katara missed the sudden withdrawl of warmth; then wondered who he was and why she was sitting next to him. In a rush, it all came back to her - the drunk man and his advances, their scuffle, and she reconciled the amber-eyed guy next to her with the person who had stopped her from doing too much harm and then offered her a seat.

Zuko watched Katara wake from a bad dream to a nightmare, and found himself wishing he could undo the past few hours. He could see that she was remembering what had happened to her. He expected the memories to trigger an emotional breakdown, seeing Mai go through a dozen of those each week had given him a fine understanding of what to expect from upset girls. He shifted uncomfortably; he was always at a loss of words against tears. To his surprise, he saw gather herself instead, take a deep breath, and say, "thank you for stopping me."

That threw him off for a bit, but he recovered with the practiced grace of many many years of his mother Ursa's training on_ what it really meant to be heir to the Fire throne_."You're welcome, though from the look of things, he would have deserved all the injury you caused him and more. How are you?", he pressed on, still worried that she might be injured from the scuffle.

"I'm alright", Katara replied with the beginning of a smile, "just exhausted, though that's probably because of the early morning flight. I'm Katara by the way, sorry I didn't get a chance to introduce myself. Katara Hakoda."

Zuko shook the slim and graceful hand extended toward him, suddenly feeling like his was too large and too clumsy. "I'm Zuko Ozai. It is a pleasure to meet you Katara, though I am sorry it is under such unfortunate circumstances."

Katara shook her head, brown curls slipped behind her ears falling out with the movement. "Please don't be, actually can we not talk about it at all, I'd rather just forget it happened." She paused for a moment, and added with a wry smile, "this is not how I saw my move to San Francisco starting out. Sokka will probably make me come back home."

That set off two completely disparate lines of thought and feelings inside Zuko - one part of him was suddenly, inexlicably happy that she was moving to his city. Another, darker corner of his mind brooded over Sokka and his apparent ability to move her from San Francisco. Both thoughts warred for dominance, seeking additional information and clarification. Thankfully before consensus could be reached, she spoke up again, sparing him the torture of inventing an innocent-sounding question.

"Sokka's my elder brother and he is a pain. He thinks I'm fragile and naive and incapable of looking after myself."

Zuko let out a sign of relief he was not aware he had been holding. Sokka suddenly sounded like a great guy. "Elder brothers can't help it", he offered with a smile and then asked, "did he teach you how to fight? I've never seen anyone move like that! It looked like a blend of Aikido and Jujitsu, but also something entirely different".

Katara froze, wondering if her style of fighting, which was inspired partly by water-bending and partly by the water tribes own ages-old martial art-form had been recognized. She answered in an even voice though, carefully looking at Zuko for signs of anything untoward. "Yes, Sokka taught me. It is indeed a blend of Aikido and Jujitsu, but my brother also weaved in a little bit of Tahtib that he learnt while we were vacationing in Egypt a few years back. Its not really any one style anymore I guess."

"Wow", Zuko was impressed, he had never heard of anyone with the ability of weaving together different fighting styles, expect perhaps his uncle Iroh. "He sounds like a really smart guy! So.. Egypt huh? If you don't mind my asking, where are you from? Your accent sounds British but also slightly different. I hope you don't mind my asking".

Katara smiled, charmed with his manners and his praise of Sokka, "I went to boarding school in Oxford so I spent many years in Britain, but my home is in Kenya, so I guess you could say I am a child of many worlds..."

Time flew as Zuko and Katara settled into an easy conversation. Zuko learnt that Katara was a globe trotter, having travelled over 80 countries already, and was on her way to start pre-med at Stanford. The latter piece of information made him stop for a moment and break out in a wide smile, before informing Katara that he was starting his final year of undergraduation in economics and international relations at Stanford. The co-incidence of being students at the same university brought out an endless series of questions from Katara, first about life at Stanford, and then about Zuko. She learnt that he had lived in Manhattan for most of his life, studying at an elite East Coast boarding school before moving to San Francisco for college. He loved campus life at Stanford, thought Palo Alto was the very epicenter of _everything interesting happening in business_ and had never been to Africa even though he had always wanted to visit.

Engrossed in their conversation, they barely noticed as the pilot announced descent, then landed and taxied on the runway. They continued to speak, exchanging notes on everything ranging from their favorite books to music they loved, when the different immigration lines for citizens and visitors split them up temporarily. The citizens' line moved much faster than her own, and Katara watched the back of Zuko's head disappear behind the immigration officer's desk with something akin to a pang. Belatedly, she wished she had asked him for his phone number or email so she could find him again on campus - her first almost-friend in a strange new city. "It is what it is", she mumbled to herself and spent the next forty five minutes shuffling through the painfully slow queue.

She got her visa stamped and walked past the many immigration control desks, and headed towards the baggage belt for her flight. As she got closer to it, she immediately spotted her two purple bags riding the carousel - seemingly amongst the very last bags left on it. She had started to look around for luggage trolleys to load them on when she noticed the amber-eyed boy who had been on her mind for all of the past hour sitting on one of the metal chairs in a corner with a black travel bag in front of him. _Zuko_. Her heart skipped a beat and she felt a smile break out across her face.

Zuko looked up from his QuizUp game, which had kept him occupied for the past hour that he had spent partly anxious that he had missed Katara, and partly anxious that he hadn't and might come face-to-face with an indifferent, _why are you still here?_. Amber eyes caught and locked-on to cerulean ones, and Katara's open and obvious joy at seeing him lifted away the weight of all his anxieties. For the umpteenth time that night, he wondered at how impossibly beautiful she was with her cascade of brown curls, smooth caramel skin and ocean-blue eyes. Agni had outdone himself this time. She was in his city. On his campus.

Katara signed towards the trolleys from a distance, silently letting Zuko know that she was going to grab her bags. Ever a gentleman, he beat her to it, effortlessly lifting both her bags - which she knew to be heavy from personal experience - onto a trolley before she had the time to say, "thanks for waiting".

"No problem", Zuko smiled, handing over the trolley to her and dragging his owm black travel bag on wheels. "My apartment is right next to campus, and I figured you might want to share a ride to Palo Alto since it's your first time here".

"That's great!", Katara exclaimed, and then asked, "how long do you reckon it will take us?"

"Less than an hour. Traffic would've died out by now", Zuko replied and then briefly hesitated before following it up with a question he had originally planned to ask during their drive and then decided to instead get out of the way while his heart was still upbeat about the way she had smiled at him."Umm Katara, I was wondering - you don't have orientation until Monday right?"

"Yup, not until Monday and so I have the weekend to settle in and get used to campus before things get really hectic", Katara replied.

Zuko took a deep breath, it was now or never, "Would you like to see the suburbs and the city with me?". There, the question was out. Inevitably, full-scale panic set in. _I've asked too soon, why do I always speak without thinking?_ He started to offer a rushed explanation. Something. Anything to fill the quiet and delay her from denying him. "It's just that I know this area really well know, and I know it can be confusing to someone new, and I..."

"Sure, I'd love to - give me your number and I'll text you tomorrow? I don't have a local number yet", Katara's soft voice pulled him out of his misery.

He smiled then, wondering whether his actions were transparent enough to bring out that tone of amused empathy in her voice. He rubbed the back of his head with his right hand, an unconscious nervous gesture that legions of tutors had tried to train out of him and dismally failed. He looked back at her smiling face, and nearly reached out to take her hand, when a familiar voice called out, "Zuko!".

His eyes snapped in front, immediately recognizing the polished articulation he had once thought sexy but now merely thought of as patently fake and spotted her right away. Immaculate hair, a tight black dress that hugged all the right curves, and bronze heels that looked painful. Mai._What is she doing here?_

Katara was momentarily confused with how quickly Zuko's expression changed. One moment his awkward questions and stumbling phrases had made it seem like he was asking her out, and the next the sound of his voice being called out had taken away all his attention and she suddenly felt forgotten. Curious, she tried to analyze the dark expression on his face. It looked like he was either angry, or... she followed his gaze and found it anchored on a girl some distance away, who for the lack of a better word, looked stunning. It hit her then. _Attraction_. He was looking at an attractive girl. That must be what the look meant.

As she looked on, the stunning girl in the black dress walked up to Zuko and hugged him, wrapping herself around him in a decidedly non-platonic fashion. "I've missed you Zuko", she declared in a sultry voice and then glanced over to Katara and asked in a colder tone, "Who is this? a friend?"

Zuko had seen Katara's expression change the moment Mai wrapped her serpent-like arms around him and knew he had to salvage things fast and with minimal drama. This was so typically Mai. To completely and unilaterally ignore their break-up of two months past and show up like everything was fine. His mind raced to find a graceful way out of this quagmire and he replied to buy time.

"Mai, this is Katara Hakoda. We met on the flight. And Katara, please meet Mai Lin..."

"... Zuko's girlfriend", Mai finished for him. His eyes popped out with the shock of it. _Why, the little.._

"Hello Mai, it's a pleasure to be introduced to you. I love your dress", Katara's quick and collected response followed, and Zuko felt like an eye-witness to a train wreck - knowing that things were getting out of control but feeling helpless in being able to stop them. Before he could speak, Katara followed her handshake with Mai with a small nod of dismissal towards both of them and said, "it's been great meeting both of you but I'm exhausted and have a long drive ahead of me. Goodbye and thanks again Zuko, for all your help on the flight."

With that, Katara turned away and pushed her trolley towards the long line of waiting cabs, impatient to get away from whatever little drama was brewing between Zuko and his girlfriend, and half-indignant with herself for thinking, nay hoping, that he had asked her out. Thankfully, the first cabby agreed to take her all the way to campus and swiftly moved her bags into the trunk. She pulled open the passenger door, and heard Zuko call out "Katara" but blanked it out, slipped into the cab and leaned back into the seat as it drove away.

Zuko stared at the cab as it pulled away, sure that she had heard him call out and chose to ignore it. He felt a brief but intense pang of disappointment at how quickly things had gone South, which morphed into anger as he turned back to Mai. "What are you doing here Mai? What part of our break-up did you not comprehend?", he snarled.

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As the cab sped along empty roads, in some distant corner of her mind, Katara noted that San Francisco was gorgeous but by La, she was exhausted. The day had been an emotional roller-coaster, from saying goodbye to her family, to the incident on the flight, to the confusion that had just played out outside the Arrivals gate. A long hot shower and twelve hours of sleep was what she needed. _And perhaps a less childish attitude towards good-looking boys_, a snarky voice in her back of her head supplied. _Yes, that too_ she agreed. She needed to put aside the Zuko Ozais of this world. She simply had too much to do this year to have any time for them. She firmly settled down to dream about pre-med instead - and as always found that it served to make her happy in a way that nothing else ever could.

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><p><strong>AN:** I owe my readers an apology. When I started out I planned to write a chapter everyday but forgot to account for reality! I got blindsided with 3 parallel projects at work - all high pressure and all involving tonnes of writing. This story has been on my mind ceaselessly though and it is good to be back. From here on, you can expect to see a chapter every weekend and at that rate I should be finishing this story by mid-2015.

**Maq** pointed out that not all quotes need to be in italics and that it's distracting for a reader. I'm sorry - I don't know how that didn't strike me! (*cringes*) Fixed now and lesson learnt. Thank you!

And welcome onboard, **new followers**! Your favorites and reviews keep me going :)


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